Shaughnessy, Clark D.
Football
b. March 6, 1892, St. Cloud, MN
d. May 15, 1970
Once called "football's man in motion" by the Associated Press because he changed jobs so often, Shaughnessy played tackle, end, and fullback at the University of Minnesota for Coach Henry L. Williams and he assisted Williams for one season after graduating in 1914.
In 1915, Shaughnessy became head coach at Tulane University, compiling a 57-28-7 record in 11 seasons, from 1915 through 1920 and from 1922 through 1925. His last team won 9 games and tied 1, but the college president rejected an invitation to the Rose Bowl. Angered, Shaughnessy moved on to nearby Loyola of the South, where his first team won all 10 of its games. He remained there through 1932, compiling a 48-18-5 record.
Shaughnessy then became the University of Chicago's second football coach, replacing the legendary A. A. Stagg in 1933. He had an 18-33-4 record there before the school dropped football after the 1939 season.
More important, he also served as a consultant to the Chicago Bears, who used a primitive version of the T formation. Shaughnessy worked with George Halas of the Bears to develop the modern T, featuring a hand-to-hand snap from center to quarterback and skillful ball-handling.
Sid Luckman of Columbia University became the first modern T formation quarterback in 1939. Shaughnessy installed the system at Stanford University the following season. After Stanford finished second in the nation with a 9-0-0 record in 1940 and the Bears demolished the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the NFL championship game, many teams began adopting the formation.
After a 6-3-0 record in 1941, Shaughnessy left Stanford for the University of Maryland. He spent just one season there, moving to the University of Pittsburgh in 1943, but he returned to Maryland in 1946.
Shaughnessy was an assistant coach with the NFL's Washington Redskins in 1947 and he took his only professional head coaching job with the Los Angeles Rams the following year. After the Rams went 6-5-1 in his first season, Shaughnessy revamped the offense. The team had acquired halfback Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, and Shaughnessy felt that the big, speedy Hirsch could be a dangerous receiver. But he had already had two outstanding ends in Tom Fears and Bob Boyd, so Shaughnessy decided to use Hirsch as a flanker in passing situations, thus creating the "three-end formation."
With Hirsch catching 22 passes, four for touchdowns, the Rams won the Western Division title with an 8-2-2 record but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 14-0 on a muddy field in the 1949 league championship game.
Shaughnessy was then fired because of persistent disagreements with owner Dan Reeve and he returned to Chicago as a consultant to the Bears. Actually, he served as defensive coordinator, though he wasn't given that title. The man who had invented the modern T formation now devised sophisticated defenses to stop it. Chicago's defensive schemes under Shaughnessy emphasized having linebackers reading and reacting to offensive keys that tip off where the play is going, along with "combo" pass defenses combining man-to-man and zone principles.
Shaughnessy retired after the 1962 season but returned to coach the University of Hawaii in 1965. His overall college coaching record was 149 wins, 106 losses, and 14 ties.